As we begin our journey for the 2025 Jubilee, Pope Francis reminds us that “hope should be granted to the billions of the poor who often lack the essentials of life” and that “the goods of the Earth are not destined for a privileged few but for everyone.” (Spes Non Confundit, 15-16)
Together, we urge decision-makers to prioritise people and planet over mere profit and demand debt justice for communities crushed by unjust and unpayable debts.
As the Holy Father writes, “if we really wish to prepare a path to peace in our world, we must commit ourselves to remedying the remote causes of injustice, settling unjust and unpayable debts” (Spes Non Confundit, 16).
Join us on March 1, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. ET for the national launch webinar to learn more on debt and its consequences with our staff and partners.
To learn more about the campaign, feel free to attend a workshop in your area. See our events page for more information.
By giving, you help turn debt into hope for millions of people in the Global South who want to live in dignity, free from the burden of debt.
By becoming a Share Year-Round monthly donor during Lent, or by increasing your monthly contribution at any time between Ash Wednesday (March 5, 2025) and Pentecost (June 8, 2025), your total annual donation (or increase) will be matched dollar for dollar.
Monthly giving is a great way to support our mission as your recurring, predictable donations reduce our administrative costs and allow us to plan longer-term transformative work. You also become a member of the organization and join a family of over 12,800 Canadians who share your values and your convictions!
The Jubilee reminds us that the goods of the earth are not destined for a privileged few, but for everyone. The rich must be generous and not avert their eyes from the faces of their brothers and sisters in need.
Today, nearly half the world’s population is living in countries that are forced to spend more on repaying debts than on health, education or tackling the climate crisis. With more than 100 countries in the Global South facing a debt crisis, we must act to stop this by cancelling and restructuring unjust and unsustainable debt and prevent other debt crises from happening again by addressing their root causes.
Together, let’s ensure future generations do not have to pay the price of an unjust debt.
Celebrated every 25 years in the Catholic Church, a jubilee is a special year of forgiveness and reconciliation, in which people are invited to come back into right relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation. The tradition is inspired by the biblical year of jubilee, a time when debts were canceled, slaves were set free, and the land was allowed to rest (Lev. 25, Deut. 15).
This year, under the theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” Pope Francis invites Catholics to renew their hope and adopt a vision that can “restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone.”
Global financial systems always demand massive debt repayments from countries in the Global South, often on harsh, impoverishing terms. Yet, they do not even acknowledge, let alone repay, a debt owed to those countries. This is the ecological debt that Pope Francis addressed in his encyclical Laudato Si’.
Western societies incur this debt while enriching themselves through economic models that rely on plundering resources from the Global South and on overconsumption. Greenhouse gases generated in the process drive the climate change whose brunt is borne by the lowest-emitting countries in the Global South.
Recognizing this ecological debt is an essential step to achieving debt and climate justice and a sustainable future.
Around the world, many people are impacted by the burden of external and ecological debts.
Here are two examples from our partners. Learn more in our Mini-magazine:
Peru may not be in an economic debt crisis, but it is an ecological debt crisis. To build its economy, and to avoid having to take on external debt, the country has turned to extractive industries. This has serious consequences on the health of entire communities and the environment.
Our partners, the Comisión Episcopal de Acción Social (CEAS, Episcopal Commission for Social Action) and the Institut Bartolomé de Las Casas (IBC) work with several peasant and Indigenous communities affected by the mining and oil industries. Learn more by watching this short video:
View of Pope Francis’ village, Tacloban.
The Philippines’ total external debt now stands at over $111 billion. In 2013, the country had to borrow billions in the wake of Super Typhoon Haiyan. While most large reconstruction projects were debt-funded, one stood apart.
Your solidarity allowed our partners to acquire the land for and build a whole new community, working with 550 typhoon-affected families.
Ten years later, the Pope Francis Village is a thriving example of post-disaster rehabilitation.
This Lent, we are delighted to welcome Bishop Jorge Izaguirre, Bishop of Chosica, Peru, president of our Peruvian partner CEAS. He will talk about the situation in Peru, and the work of CEAS, which leads a pastoral social movement that consolidates justice, democracy, participation and the common good while promoting and defending human rights.
Bishop Izaguirre will be touring Alberta from March 27 to April 7, 2025. Stay tuned for details of his itinerary.
Spread the word about the Share Lent campaign in your community and encourage donations with our many resources: poster, Mini-magazine + Solidarity Calendar, short talk, parish bulletin announcements, prayers of the faithful, Way of the Cross, weekly reflections, promotional banners and more!
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Our international cooperation program is carried out in part with the financial support of the Government of Canada acting through Global Affairs Canada.
Development and Peace — Caritas Canada is the official international solidarity organization of the Catholic Church in Canada and the Canadian member of Caritas Internationalis.
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